The greatest mystery in the tech world today is not how bitcoin works, but who is the creator of bitcoin. On October 31, 2008, someone under the name of Satoshi Nakamoto published a whitepaper on a cryptography mailing list. That event changed the history of money and left us all wondering about the mastermind behind it.

Over the years, many journalists and bloggers have tried to unveil the shadow cast on the creator of bitcoin without much luck. There have been a lot of candidates, some of them even self-nominated. However, none have given definitive proof of their claims, so we are still searching for the person behind the mystery.

There is, though, one stand-out candidate. I had to guess, I would say with great certainty that he is the creator of bitcoin. Before I tell you who Ive chosen, lets assess what we know about Satoshi Nakamoto. Or, better yet, what he wants us to know.

In Satoshis P2P Foundation profile, he claims to be a man from Japan, born on April 5, 1975. The problem is that he doesnt behave or sound like someone from Japan. First of all, he wrote the whitepaper and his subsequent posts in perfect English. Secondly, his sleep pattern is very strange for someone living in Japan.

Bitcoin Forum member Stefan Thomas graphed the time stamps from more than 500 of Satoshis posts. He found that Satoshi Nakamoto never posted anything between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Japanese time. So, its possible probable, even that Satoshis entire identity is fictional.

But why would he pretend to be someone else?

Just like there was Pretty Good Privacy, a project that enabled people to send encrypted messages to each other. Phil Zimmermann, an activist who wanted to give dissidents a government-free communication channel, founded PGP. However, the USA government realized the potential of this technology and confiscated it. PGP and Zimmermann then become the subjects of a criminal investigation.

The only thing this technology did was enable two individuals to communicate without being eavesdropped on. So, imagine how the government would treat the creator of bitcoin, a technology that enables free money transfers without banks or intermediaries. The technology that takes money out of the hands of the government.

Now that Ive covered my misgivings about his identity and reasons for hiding it, heres what we know about Satoshi Nakamoto.

As Ive already mentioned, Satoshi Nakamoto emerged with a whitepaper on cryptography mailing list metzdowd.com. His nine-page document proposed a new electronic cash system thats fully peer-to-peer, with no trusted third party on Halloween 2008.

He then created the bitcointalk forum and posted the first message under the pseudonym satoshi. He also made a website with the domain name bitcoin.org and continued to work on bitcoin software. On January 3, 2009, Satoshi mined the first Bitcoin block, known as the genesis block.

Throughout 2010, Satoshi Nakamoto collaborated with other developers to modify the bitcoin protocol. He was involved in the bitcoin community and corresponded with them frequently. Then, all of a sudden, he gave the keys and codes to Gavin Andresen and transferred domains to members of the community. By the end of 2010, he had stopped working on the project.

Then, on Saturday April 23, 2011, the creator of bitcoin emerged once again to post his last message. When developer Mike Hearn asked him if he planned to rejoin the community, Satoshi replied:

Ive moved on to other things. Its in good hands with Gavin and everyone.

The man who had disrupted the financial system for good simply disappeared. But why then?

We should also take into account that Satoshis bitcoin addresses had and still contain about 1,000,000 BTC. In December 2017, when the price peaked, he had more than US$19 billion. For that short moment, Nakamoto was 44th richest person in the world! And to this day he hasnt cashed a single bitcoin.

All this evidence suggests that something may have happened to creator of bitcoin. That is why I believe Hal Finney is Satoshi Nakamoto.

Unfortunately, Hal Finney was diagnosed with ALS in 2009 and fought the disease until his death in 2014. I imagine he created the future of money, but then had to retreat when the disease progressed. And then he died and left us with only rumors about the true identity of the creator of bitcoin.

He could not claim his throne.

Hal Finney was a computer scientist who graduated from Caltech in 1979. As a student, he received the most brains award from his peers. During his freshman year, he took a course on gravitational field theory designed for graduate students. It seems Finney was extremely intelligent, which fits the first criterion for being Satoshi Nakamoto.

Students also remember seeing Finney with a copy of Ayn Rands Atlas Shrugged. If he was reading this kind of literature, he could have easily formed libertarian views on life.

And he did. His views pushed him towards a little-known group of free thinkers and coders. In the early 1990s, he became a member of Cypherpunks. This movement was dedicated to the widespread use of strong cryptography and privacy-enhancing technologies as a route to social and political change. They were self-proclaimed defenders of privacy and Finney put his knowledge at their disposal to achieve the cryptoanarchist vision.

When someone wrote on Cypherpunks mailing list about the above-mentioned Phil Zimmermann and his idea for PGP, Hal responded. He contacted Phil and became the first employee of PGP Corporation, working there until his retirement in 2011. That same year, Satoshi Nakamoto stopped his involvement with bitcoin.

Finney made a significant contribution to the new version of the PGP protocol, but he had to hide his involvement from the government. So he was very well aware of the problems Phil had regarding PGP. Because of that, I can understand his desire to hide his identity when creating bitcoin.

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The Creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, Is Most Likely This Guy

Even if we do not know who she or who he is, we know what he has created:Satoshi Nakamoto is the inventor of the Bitcoin protocol, which he published in a whitepaper in November 2008 via an encrypted e-mail address.

In 2009, he published the first Bitcoin client and communicated with the Bitcoin community by the end of 2010. Then he disappeared without a trace.

He initially worked with an open source team on the project and always put great value on not disclosing any personal data. In the spring of 2011 he heard about him when he said, I will devote myself to other things.

You should not judge a book by its title, or do you?

Satoshi means clear-minded; Naka could mean inside or relationship; Moto means origin or foundation.

All these things fit the person who created a movement and created an ingenious algorithm. The problem is that each single word can have several meanings.

So we can not say for sure whether Satoshi Nakamoto is a Japanese. It only suggests that Satoshi is a he.

For the sake of simplicity, we will call Satoshi Nakamoto as him, even though he may have been one, one or more persons.

No, but the criminal techniques people use these days often raise more questions than answers. The New Yorker Joshua Davis believes Satoshi Nakamoto is a cryptography student of Dublin Trinity College, named Michael Clear.

To his conclusion he came by an analysis of all Nakamoto letters containing more than 80,000 words. Here he searched for linguistic references. He also suspected the Finnish economic sociologist and former game developer Vili Lehdonvirta.

Both said they were not the inventors of Bitcoin. In a Web Summit in 2013, Michael Clear even reported publicly that he was not Satoshi Nakamoto.

Adam Penenberg of FastCompany denied the assumption and said that Satoshi Nakamoto is a group of three people: Neal King, Vladimir Oksman, and Charles Bry. He found out about this by stating different phrases from the published Whitepaper at Google to see if these word phrases had been found somewhere before.

It turned out later that one of the three was mentioned in a patent application for the update and distribution of cryptic keys. The Bitcoin.org domain that Satoshi Nakamoto used to publish the Whitepapers was registered and secured only 3 days after the patent application.

The domain was registered in Finland and one of the patent applicants traveled to the country 6 months earlier. All three suspects deny Satoshi Nakamoto.

In any case, the Bitcoin.org domain was registered on August 18, 2008 by an anonymous Japanese service provider and a Japanese ISP. After that, the domain has only been transferred to Finland. This weakened the theory of Finland a little.

Again, other tongues claim that the inventor of Bitcoin could also be Martii Malmi. Martii lives in Finland and has been involved in the development since the birth of Bitcoin.

Jed McCaleb also belongs to the circle of the elect. He is a lover of Japanese culture and lives in Japan. He is the founder of the controversial Bitcoin stock exchange, Mt. Gox, and co-founder of the decentralized payment systems Ripple and Stellar.

There are a variety of other potential Satoshi Nakamotos, including Donal OMahony, Michael Peirce, Professor Shinichi Mochizuki and Dorian S Nakamoto. All of them dispute the inventors of an ingenious invention. In the Bitcoin community there is still great uncertainty about the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. In the Bitcoin trading community there is still great uncertainty about the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto.

One thing we know: Based on interviews with fellow travelers of Satoshi Nakamoto in the early hours of birth of Bitcoin, he is supposed to have meticulously thought through the system.

According to Jeff Garzik, his encodings did not carry the handwriting of a conventional software engineer.How rich is he?

According to an analysis by the bitcoiner Sergio Lerner, Satoshi Nakamoto is said to have scavenged many of the first blocks in the Bitcoin network: about 1 million bitscoins. At the then rate in November 2013, more than USD 1 billion.

Nobody knows. But from his last email of April 23, 2011, it is clear:

I will now devote myself to other things. Its all in good hands at Gavin & Co.

Find more about Satoshi Nakamoto and Bitcoin News here

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The Bitcoin News - Who is Satoshi Nakamoto - always up to date

The first Bitcoin transaction between Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous Bitcoin creator, and computer programmer Hal Finney happened on Jan. 12, 2009,which was exactly 11 years ago. Finney received 10 BTC (around $81,000 at the time of writing) as a test.

"When Satoshi announced the first release of the software, I grabbed it right away. I think I was the first person besides Satoshi to run bitcoin. I mined block 70-something, and I was the recipient of the first bitcoin transaction, when Satoshi sent ten coins to me as a test. I carried on an email conversation with Satoshi over the next few days, mostly me reporting bugs and him fixing them," Finney described hisexperience in a forum post.

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The first BTC transaction in history came just one day after Finney posted his already historic "Running Bitcoin" tweeton Jan. 11, 2009.

As reported by U.Today, the first Bitcoin mention on Twitter could be soon deleted due to a new policy implemented by the social media juggernaut. All tweets posted by accounts that show no signs of activity for more than six months will be removed.

Finney passed away in 2014 at the age of 58 after losing his battle withamyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). His last tweet was published back in 2010. He wrote that he was comfortable with his legacyin 2014.

"My bitcoins are stored in our safe deposit box, and my son and daughter are tech savvy. I think theyre safe enough. Im comfortable with my legacy.

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More than a decade after the creation of Bitcoin, the debate about the real identity of Satoshi lives on. There are numerous facts that point to Finney being the real BTC creator. Apart from being a prominent cyberpunk who expressed the same views as Satoshi and received the first BTC transaction, he also lived on down the street withDorian Satoshi Nakamoto, the man who waserroneously identified as the real Satoshi by a Newsweek article.

However, when Forbes reporter Andy Greenberg directly asked Finney whether he was the real Satoshi, the latter vehemently denied his claim. At this point, he was already paralyzed, so there is a good chance that he simply didn't want to be disturbed by excessive media attention.

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Finney estimated that BTC could be worth about$10 mln per coin if it were to become the dominant payment system. Blockstream CEO Adam Back, who was cited in the Bitcoin white paper, claims that such a huge price target could be closer than it sounds due to the growth of the USD inflation. The price of the top cryptocurrency could be 10 mln "in a decade or two" due to "monetary craziness."

Is this a realistic target? Share your take in the comments!

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First Bitcoin (BTC) Transaction Was Made 11 Years Ago by Satoshi. What Was Its Purpose? - U.Today

Parth Vig Thursday, 16 January 2020, 12:57 EST Modified date: Thursday, 16 January 2020, 12:58 EST

An American writer, economist and inventor, George Gilder described the readers about the crisis of trust and security facing Google, making predictions about the technological and social development of Google afterwards.

Chapter 12, Finding Satoshi Nakamoto, is a virtual interview between the author and Satoshi Nakamoto, who is the inventor of Bitcoin.

An excerpt from the original text of the book has described here briefly:

He started by talking of moving forward in what people referred to as the Bitcoin Space. Tattoos and ponytails, suits and ties, medical e-cigarettes, the world-renowned Blockchain Community certificate, and a column by Coringiri came to mind.

Most of this done point-to-point. But from venture capitalists to mutual programmers, from bitcoin players to legendary giants, no one seemed to be able to conduct a detailed analysis of the heros Bitcoin chain Genesis Block.

In the end, he said that he gave up looking for an accessible circle and decided to directly find a way to interview the person who created the new era.

Satoshi Nakamoto, the designer of Bitcoin, the inventor of the blockchain, and the leading promoter of this conspiracy. He repeatedly emphasised that he did not mention blockchain technology in his thesis.

He said that his first discovery was that Satoshi Nakamoto was a writer. He has published at least 150 insightful maxims on the Cypherpunks list, the P2P Foundation website, the Bitcoin Forum, and other decryption bulletin boards.

Until 11th of December, 2010, it was most likely that his incarnation suddenly disappeared. Further on the 7th of March.

2014, he suddenly appeared again and posted a post which contained several words on the P2P Foundation website. The least to say would be calling Satoshis fans as ecstatic online.

On the 30th of May, 2014, three months post-Satoshi Nakamoto published the last article, he left his wife and children, who were still in western Massachusetts, and came to Europe alone.

He also added that Satoshi Nakamoto, was secretive, to come here for his interview. Satoshi Nakamoto further also explained that the networks such as Napster were under central control and its easy to cut off their heads.

The Tor system which originated from the US National Security Agency and was developed by entrepreneur Bram Cohen accounts for almost half of the Internets traffic.

Further, if the savage giant Satoshi Nakamoto is willing to retreat, Bitcoin could achieve such success. As a substantial global replication machine, the Internet cannot create money or other pure digital assets.

In Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto made digital assets possible. Without a lot of work, it cant copy. He refers to it as proof of work. Miners have worked hard to search all transactions and compile them into blocks.

Due to this, Satoshi Nakamoto was able to create money online and use the money to pay miners to verify the transactions made by him.

An immutable transaction record is a form of currency. However, the government does not like private money creation. Therefore, Satoshi Nakamoto has managed to maintain his anonymity.

Soon after Satoshi Nakamoto launched Bitcoin, James Donald on the poster of the decryption master stated that to avoid stress, the network must avoid any central point of exerting pressure.

He also added that it was more like a precious metal. It had predetermined supply, its value fluctuates, and quantity cannot be changed to keep the amount unchanged. As the number of users increases, the cost of each bitcoin also increases.

A sly, mischievous look appeared in his eyes as he said that this might produce a positive feedback loop. As the number of users increases, the value will increase, which will attract more users to take advantage of the added cost.

The emphasis on proof of work suggests Satoshis efforts to resist changing the cornerstone of Bitcoins structure.

Ever since the release of Bitcoins and blockchain technology, it has only been achieving great heights and popularity as it is being adopted in countries worldwide. If the trend continues, it wont be long when bitcoin and blockchain get worldwide acceptance.

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Satoshi Nakamoto Calls Bitcoin The Embodiment Of Value Creation - The Coin Republic

NEW YORK, Aug. 16, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- After a decade of anonymity, Satoshi Nakamoto will break his silence in Part I of his My Reveal Sunday, Aug. 18, at 4 p.m. EDT on the Satoshi Nakamoto Renaissance Holdings website, http://www.SatoshiNRH.com, and the Ivy McLemore & Associates website, http://www.ivymclemore.com.

In addition to his real-life identity, Nakamoto will use My Reveal to divulge such facts as his country of origin, education, professional background, and why he has yet to move any of his 980,000 bitcoins.

Indicative of the compelling evidence he presents in each part of the series, Nakamoto will illustrate the role that cyphers and encryption related to his devotion to Chaldean numerology played in many decisions in his creation of Bitcoin.

Nakamoto also will disclose why he chose the date August 18 not only to register bitcoin.org in 2008, but also to release Part I of My Reveal this coming Sunday on the 11th anniversary of his registration of bitcoin.org through AnonymousSpeech.com.

Nakamotos revelations will culminate Tuesday in Part III with his introduction of Tabula Rasa, his clean-slate vision for Bitcoins transformational rebirth, and the declaration of his identity.

The final two parts of Nakamotos My Reveal will post to http://www.SatoshiNRH.com and http://www.ivymclemore.com on Monday and Tuesday at 4 p.m. EDT.

About Satoshi Nakamoto Renaissance (SNR) Holdings

Satoshi Nakamoto Renaissance (SNR) Holdings is in the business of providing superior Blockchain technologies to help transform peoples lives. For more information, please visit http://www.SatoshiNRH.com or follow @SatoshiNRH on Twitter.

About Ivy McLemore & Associates

Ivy McLemore & Associates (IM&A) is a digital marketing and PR agency that specializes in serving investment management and cryptocurrency clients seeking to gain and maintain a competitive edge. For more information, please visit http://www.ivymclemore.com.

CONTACT: Ivy McLemorePHONE: 212.323.2774EMAIL: satoshiPR@ivymclemore.comWEB: http://www.ivymclemore.com

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Visionary Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto to Reveal Identity

Bitcoin rallied today, rising to its most in more than two months.

Bitcoin prices rallied today, reaching their loftiest value since mid-November as the broader market pushed higher.

The digital currency climbed to $8,848.92 at roughly 1:15 p.m. EST, according to CoinDesk data.

At this point, the cryptocurrency was up 3.6% for the day, and was trading at its highest level since November 12th, additional CoinDesk figures reveal.

The digital asset has been following a broad, upward trend for the last several days, pushing higher after reaching a 2020 low of $6852.09 on January 3rd.

[Ed note: Investing in cryptocoins or tokens is highly speculative and the market is largely unregulated. Anyone considering it should be prepared to lose their entire investment.]

When explaining bitcoins recent gains, analysts cited both technical and fundamental factors.

Christopher Brookins, founder and CIO atValiendero Digital Assets, spoke to these developments.

The sharp move is the confluence of uptick in fundamentals and technicals, he stated.

I think the bottom is firmly in, said Brookins, pointing to the strong uptick in bitcoins hash rate and his analysis of the Hurst exponent, a momentum indicator that helps determine the strength of a trend.

The digital currency was very oversold at the end of Q4, he added.

Joe DiPasquale, CEO of cryptocurrency hedge fund managerBitBull Capital, offered a similar perspective, also stating that bitcoins recent gains were driven by a mix of fundamental and technical factors.

First, the digital currency appreciated during the US-Iran tensions, going from $6,860 to $8,460, he stated.

This move took it above our previously cited support level at $7,700.

Then, new developments in Craig Wright's legal battle fueled speculations regarding him being Satoshi Nakamoto (and potentially having control over the billions worth of initially mined Bitcoins), pushing up Bitcoin SV, and by association, Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin, noted DiPasquale.

More specifically, there are rumors circulating that Wright has received the final keys for him to unlock the so-called Tulip Trust, which supposedly holds more than 1.1 million units of bitcoin.

Bitcoin SV has skyrocketed lately, its price up more than 90% in the last 24 hours at the time of this report, CoinMarketCap figures showed.

However, this rally is a completely speculative move, said Tim Enneking,managing director ofDigital Capital Management.

Short-Term Outlook

Going forward, market observers might benefit from watching a handful of key price levels, noted analysts.

Persistent buying momentum (at the moment, it looks like RSI will push towards 80) has allowed bitcoin to retest/break key resistance of $8442 and is currently completing a Kumo breakout, said Brookins.

If that holds, it would confirm a resumption of the bull trend, he stated.

However, Brookins added that in classic crypto form, bitcoin is trying to regain all of its Q4 loses in 2 weeks.

So, it's overbought right now, but I wouldn't stand in front of the train for a reversal just yet.

As long as $8442 (now support) holds after RSI decompresses, the bulls are in control again, stated Brookins.

Ramak J. Sedigh, founder & CEO of Plouton Mining, also weighed in.

A quick look at the trading volume shows a huge increase parallel to the price increases, he stated.

So unless we break out of the 8800 and 9000 resistance levels this is just another price manipulation - intentional or not. So its bound to come back to re-test the lows.

For now, bitcoins recent price rally looks too much too quickly, he stated.

Disclosure: I own some bitcoin, bitcoin cash, litecoin, ether and EOS.

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Bitcoin Reaches Its Highest In More Than 2 Months - Forbes

1. Lightning Duel

"This protocol is not big enough for both of us." The working subject for Lightning duel have now been. Because, due to the fact title indicates, the Satoshi mini game takes us to your crazy western. The online game advertises a 48 % fair possiblity to win the Mexican standoff and twice as much Satoshi bet.

Rien ne va plus: Another way to gamble hard earned Satoshi provides Thunder Sats, Roulette simulation just allows tough money wagers, specifically BTC. Minimum bet is 100 Satoshi then every thing on black colored!

If you have got a handful of satoshi from the large advantage, it is possible to join Unlock to try one's luck. The purpose of the overall game would be to click the proper hair and twice as much victory of 50 Satoshi each. But be mindful: in the event that you click many times, you shed every thing.

As long as the celebrated history of this Bitcoin dad continues to be confusing, the folklore around Satoshi Nakamoto must not end. Where is Nakamoto? joins the look for the writer of this Bitcoin white report and transforms it into a mini-game.

If you may be fortunate to get the best area, youll be richly compensated. The primary reward, Satoshi Nakamoto himself, is just provided when within the 16 by 16 area. For this, the lifter of this prize beckons an astonishing 18,000 satoshi.

The gameplay of RGB slot really is easy: deposit Satoshi, spot a wager and a cure for best. Because in the event that player achieves the best shade combo, profits trend. The much more improbable the result, the larger the entrainment logically. If you make the leap early adequate, you have got a good possibility of going house or apartment with even more Satoshi than were used.

As within the genuine casino, nevertheless, the exact same also pertains to the Bitcoin counterpart: in the long run, the financial institution constantly wins. As only a little gimmick, the provides tend to be great. Prove that little programs could be constructed on Lightning very quickly after all. However, users shouldnt be lured to wager bigger amounts.

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Listicle: 5 Bitcoin Lightning Games you need to know - Sahiwal Tv

The cryptocurrency market is trading mostly sideways today, after some gains earlier in the week. At the moment of writing, the price of Bitcoin is trading at $8,697. However, although the price of Bitcoin is hovering around $8,700, a fresh poll suggests it may have a massive upside.

As it often the case, Bitcoins performance is dictating that of the larger cryptocurrency market. According to statistics from COIN360, the market is evenly split between intraday gains and losses.

However, perhaps the most notable crypto market news of the past week has been the meteoric rise of Bitcoin SV. Bitcoin SV is currently the fifth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Whats more, the coin rose from well under $200 a few days ago to a high of roughly $440.

Although the coins price has since fallen, to a price of $317 at the time of writing, this still represents a massive price increase. The exact reason as to Bitcoin SVs dramatic price increase is not clear.

However, some suggest that rumors that Craig Wright could execute a massive Bitcoin sell-off and instead invest in his fork of choice, Bitcoin SV. This rumor was tied to the recent news that time is running out for Wright to prove he is Satoshi Nakamoto if he wants to escape legal sanctions.

The Bitcoin SV pump saw the cryptocurrency briefly overtake Bitcoin Cash as the fourth-largest crypto in the market. Although Bitcoin SV has since fallen, it will be interesting to see whether this was a tease of future market moves.

In Bitcoin news, however, a recent poll says that Bitcoins true value could be $20,000. This poll was undertaken by the economist and crypto analyst Alex Krger.

Moreover, he committed the poll over Twitter, which means it isnt entirely scientific. It is, nevertheless, interesting to take into account.

In it, a total of 4,079 people were asked regarding their sentiment for the premier cryptocurrency. A total of 47.1% of those asked regarding the cryptocurrency were adamant that Bitcoin will surpass its all-time high of roughly $20,000 by the end of this year.

Only a mere 14.8% of the respondent thought that Bitcoins price would be anywhere below $11,499 by the end of 2020.

Public sentiment does not decide everything, but it is an important factor for investment appetite. As such, it will be interesting to see whether Alex Krgers poll pans out.

Published January 16, 2020January 16, 2020

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Bitcoin Hovers Around $8,700 As Poll Suggests $20,000 Bitcoin Price - Toshi Times

Kraken CEO Jesse Powell, in a conversation with crypto and privacy advocate Naomi Brockwell, said that there are a lot of legitimate reasons to have financial privacy. He believes privacy coins such as Monero and Dash serve an important person, and it will take a lot of time for governments to understand the benefits of it.

Jesse Powell also emphasized on the importance of educating lawmakers and regulators about the importance and rationale of cryptocurrencies. When asked about the regulations around privacy coins, Powell replied that financial privacy is like a fundamental right. For example, an employer should not be able to track what employees spend their money on. He said that bitcoin transactions can be traced, and substantial information can be retrieved, and thats why privacy coins are important.

Kraken CEO, when asked about the importance of decentralized exchanges, replied that it would be nice to have DEXs there as we have already seen at least one case of a regulator going after a DEX creator, and in future, we will see more of that. He added that most DEXs are out there in the open, and it is known who the development teams are where they are. He further noted that a story like Satoshi Nakamoto is needed for a successful DEX so the regulators can not throw him in jail or ask to change the protocol.

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Kraken CEO believes privacy coins will become widely accepted. - Coinnounce

Satoshi Nakamoto was not a troll. Satoshi Nakamoto was calm, cool, pragmatic and pro-technology. He avoided confrontation, he avoided confrontation of WikiLeaks, and he never yelled at anybody, asserted former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan, while addressing the controversy surrounding Nakamoto.com and its choice of name.

Nakamoto [the publication, and not Satoshi] was subjected to massive criticism from many in the community, soon after it launched in January, with many taking issue with the website being named after the creator of the worlds largest cryptocurrency.

On the latest episode of Unqualified Podcast hosted by Messaris Ryan Selkis, Srinivasan defended the publication and stated that with Nakamoto, he wants to create a community where everybody can win. Talking about the cryptocurrency industry and the age-long discourse and the ideological split between Bitcoin and altcoins, the former exec said,

If you think of Bitcoin as digital gold, I do think there is room for other things. I dont really want to argue that with people who think its a zero-sum game.. There are zero-sum games, but I dont think this is one

Srinivasan added,

Our philosophy is Bitcoin and and not Bitcoin or. And that is actually where the community is in practice. At Coinbase, no matter what community I met with, they may be in privacy coins, they may be in smart contracts platform, everybody knew, respected and held Bitcoin.

Apart from the name, another aspect that was hotly debated after the launch of Nakamoto.com was the list of contributors who came together from different backgrounds and identified themselves as pro-Bitcoin, with a lot of criticism leveled against BCH proponent Roger Ver and Ethereums Vitalik Buterin.

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If Bitcoin is digital gold, theres room for other things: Balaji Srinivasan - AMBCrypto

Self-proclaimed Bitcoin (BTC) creator Craig Wright, showed what he claims is a document that explains the origins of the Satoshi Nakamoto pseudonym.

In an interview published by industry news outlet Modern Consensus on Dec. 19, Wright has shown to his interviewer a document representing an article from digital database of an academic journals JSTOR, dated Jan. 5, 2008.

The article is about a person named Tominaga Nakamoto, who lived between 1715 and 1746 in Japan. The document also contained the following handwritten notes:

Nakamoto is the Japanese Adam Smith. Honest Ledger + Micro Cash. Satoshi is Intelligent History. Not too hard.

According to Wright, he has chosen the name Nakamoto in honor of Tominaga Nakamoto. The handwritten note compares him to Adam Smith, who is by many regarded as the father of modern economics. When asked whether Nakamotos economic ideas were the reason why he has chosen his name, he answered:

In part, yes. He wrote about money and honest money and the rational nature of things. The shogun [feudal ruler] at the time was in financial crisis, and economic austerity. [...] I like the description of him, and I got into his brother, Tka. Nakamoto was upright and quiet but impatient in character and I thought: That sounds like me.

When it comes to the first word of the pseudonym, Satoshi, Wright says it means intelligent learning. This, he explained, refers to one having access to the knowledge conquered by his ancestors.

While Wright claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto, in November he also informed the plaintiff that he could not finance a 500,000 BTC ($3.7 billion) settlement in the case that the Kleiman estate initiated against him. Dave Kleiman was a cyber-security expert, whom many believe to have been one of the first developers behind the Bitcoin and blockchain technology who died in April 2013.

Kleimans estate, led by Davids brother Ira Kleinman initiated the case in February last year, accusing Wright of stealing hundreds of thousands of Bitcoins worth over $5 billion after the developers death.

Satoshi Nakamoto is known to have mined the origin blocks on the Bitcoin blockchain, the so-called Satoshi blocks and consequently should own a significant number of coins on his/her address.

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Craig Wright Reveals Document Claiming Origin of Satoshi Nakamoto Name - Cointelegraph

Although Bitcoin has been around for almost 11 years now, it is still a mystery who is the inventor of the first distributed digital cryptocurrency. Although probably everyone who has ever dealt with Bitcoin knows the synonym Satoshi Nakamoto, nobody (who makes it public) knows who Satoshi is and if there is a single person or a group of people behind the synonym.

In general, people know that Satoshi was very careful to protect his privacy. So very few facts about the founder of Bitcoin are known. Even in the early days of the Cypherpunk mailing lists, Satoshi kept a low profile. Without much notice, he published the Bitcoin Whitepaper in November 2008, which laid the foundation for the Bitcoin protocol. On January 3, 2009, the first Bitcoin block carrying the message was dismantled:

The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.

The mysterious Bitcoin inventor then tinkered with his invention for another two years until, after a dispute with the community that wanted to get WikiLeaks to use Bitcoin, he posted his last message on the Bitcoin Forum in December. Satoshi did not (yet) want to draw attention to his still beta-stage project and probably also to the CIA.

In spring 2011, Nakamoto returned to leave a final message. He explained that he was handing over the reins to Gavin Andresen and all other community members. This was the last time, however, that Satoshi Nakamoto made a public statement.

Since then, there have been wild speculations about who Satoshi is. Over the years, numerous people have also come forward claiming to be Satoshi. So who are the most likely candidates? And has the CIA already identified who Satoshi Nakamoto is?

One of the most frequently mentioned candidates is Nick Szabo. The most important reason for his nomination is Bit Gold. In 2018 Szabo wrote on his blog that he has an idea for a decentralized and deflationary money. He described some basic concepts that can also be found in Bitcoin. Among other things, Szabo proposed to use a concept of time stamps and reusable proofs of work to make Bit Gold tamper-proof.

However, various linguistic studies have shown that although Szabos and Satoshis wording are very similar, however, the language style is too different. While Szabo has a digressive writing style, Satoshis texts in the Bitcoin Forum as well as in the whitepaper are always very sober and precise.

Another argument against Szabo is that there is no evidence that Szabo has programming skills. His work was rather academic. In this respect, he probably would have needed help in programming Bitcoin. Szabo also denied being Satoshi several times.

A common theory is that Szabo may have received help from Hal Finney. In his blog post on Bit Gold, Szabo sought help with the development. Finney was a cryptographic pioneer of the pre-Bitcoin era and may have answered Szabos call. Finney was also the second person, after Satoshi himself, who ran the Bitcoin core software to mine Bitcoin.

In an official interview, Finney, who died in August 2014, stated that he was the recipient of the first Bitcoin transaction when Satoshi sent him ten BTCs as a test. The evidence for Hal Finney is therefore relatively strong. Due to his early death, however, a resolution of the mystery, by himself, is no longer possible.

Another possible candidate for Satoshi Nakamoto is the Australian and entrepreneur Craig Wright. Unlike the previous candidates, Wright does not deny being Satoshi. Instead, he has been claiming to be Satoshi for a long time. According to Wright, Bitcoin (BTC) has lost sight of its original goal of being a digital currency. As a result, he forged Bitcoin Satoshis Vision (Bitcoin SV).

Wright first received attention as a Bitcoin founder when he spoke at a conference in November 2015 next to the legendary Nick Szabo and hinted that he came into contact with Bitcoin at a very early (very, very early) stage. A month later, Gizmodo and Wired published an article about Wright, as a possible Satoshi candidate. As a basis, both magazines allegedly had leaked documents that Wright and Kleiman had invested 1.1 million Bitcoin in a Tulip Fund.

In May 2016, Wright then gave an interview to the BCC and declared on TV that he was Satoshi. As proof, he signed a transaction from an address known to be Satoshis the perfect proof, in fact. For a short time (almost) everybody was also convinced by Craig Wright. However, when the community verified the signature, it turned out that it was a signature of Satoshi, but one that Satoshi created when he sent Hal Finney Bitcoin.

In the current trial, the judge has awarded Dave Kleimans heirs half of Satoshis Bitcoins, 500,000 BTC. However, as CNF reported, Wright has not yet made the payment and stated that he cannot access his Bitcoin (BTC) as part of the Tulip Fund.

Within the crypto-community Craig Wright is also known as Faketoshi because of his numerous (alleged) lies. Wrights confrontation with Vitalik Buterin at Deconomy 2018 is legendary.

An often mentioned candidate is also the long-time cyperpunk Adam Back. Unlike previous candidates, Back also plays an active role in the current development of Bitcoin (as CEO of Blockstream, which funds Bitcoin Core extensively). Back is also the inventor of Hashcash, the only technical predecessor of Bitcoin, which Satoshi cites in the first version of his whitepaper.

However, Back denies being Satoshi. Moreover, Back only entered the Bitcoin scene in 2013 and (as far as is known) never wrote a single line of code for Bitcoin. As CEO of Blockstream he only contributed ideas and concepts.

In the summer of 2018, the news that the CIA and found out who is behind the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto caused a stir. Journalist Daniel Oberhaus from the Motherboard had made a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the CIA for information regarding Satoshis identity. Oberhaus reported that the CIA neither confirms nor denies the existence of the requested information.

As early as 2016, Alexander Muse wrote in a blog for Cryptomuse that the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) had identified the real identity of Satoshi Nakamoto using stylometry. Muse reported that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would not publicly confirm his FOIA request.

So, all in all, there is no candidate who stands out. Ultimately, only the signature of a transaction with one of Satoshis known keys can provide the ultimate proof. In this respect, the identity of Satoshi will remain a secret in 2019.

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Who is the Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto? The most likely candidates - Crypto News Flash

Dec 25, 2019 at 10:57 // News

Craig Steven Wright, the person calling himself Satoshi Nakamoto and the chief defender at Bitcoin SV, is expected to get the keys to over 1,000,000 BTC by next week. The blockchain and digital currency ecosystem is waiting to see how this will go. If Craig is right, the unlocked Bitcoin money worth over $8 billion at the time of writing could flood the whole digital currency market.

The chief scientist at nChain as dominated the blockchain, distributed ledger tech (DLT) and cryptocurrency news this year, most especially on the part of claiming to be the original developer of Bitcoin. Nevertheless, Satoshi Nakamoto will more likely see his sway over digital asset sector drama fizzle out at the start of 2020.

Craig has been claiming to be the real creator of the original digital currency Bitcoin, but up to now he has never proved it. Albeit, he isnt alone claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto, there are a good number of people and companies claiming this, as coinidol.com, world blockchain news outlet, reported back in time.

Craig has been undergoing a tough clash with the company of his short time ex-partner Dave Kleiman, after being suspected of mining over 1 Mln BTC during its early existence. The estate managed to drag Wright in courts of law, and he won the rights of some of the holdings they mined which is valued at over 8 bln USD, at press time.

But according to Craig, the funds cant be accessed since they are still held in the Seychelles-based fund known as Tulip Trust. At this time, Craig still says that he lost the keys accessing the funds, claiming that his ex business partner hired a bonded courier in order to recover the keys back to him not exceeding January 1, next year (around one week from now). And if at all the keys to the trust are recovered, Wright is going to own 1.1 Mln Bitcoin, worth more than $8 bln (considering the current price rates).

The Bitcoin Satoshi Vision ecosystem is also warming up to jump onto the bandwagon of the digital currency revolution, but that is when the case is successfully ended in favor of their chief defender.

Enough evidence (including the email that were exchanged between the two parties) has been raised in court by both Craig and Dave, so it now left in the hands of the judges for the law to take its course and justice to prevail. Jan. 1, 2020 will on the other hand become an extremely imperative day for the digital currency industry.

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Steven Wright's Seized 1M Bitcoin to Be Unlocked Soon, BSV to Gain Momentum - Coin Idol

Shortly before Christmas, the case of Craig Wright vs. Dave Kleiman received further impetus. After the self-appointed Bitcoin inventor was already sentenced in August to hand over half of the Bitcoin originally mined by Satoshi, 500,000 BTC, to his former partner Dave Kleiman and his heirs, the day of decision is now approaching.

The notorious Tulip Trust is to be activated on 1 January 2020. While Wright claims that he does not have access to the private keys of the over 1 million Bitcoin, as these are held in the Tulip Trust, a trust company based in the Seychelles, a courier is to return Dave Kleimans keys on January 1. However, a courier is to return Dave Kleimans keys on January 1.

Wright claims that Kleiman has hired a courier under customs seal who will return the keys to Wright on January 1st. Whether the courier will ever show up, however, is more than questionable. Wright has already made provision during the court proceedings for an excuse in case the courier does not appear. In a court statement he said that Kleiman never confirmed to him whether he had actually hired a courier.

Next Wednesday, however, Craig Wright could possibly receive the keys to more than 1 million Bitcoins and the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto could be finally clarified. The chances of this happening are considered very slim by many members of the industry. While the confirmation could send Wright`s Bitcoin SV (BSV) to the moon, the non-appearance of the courier could be another blow to the BSV price.

Regardless of the big decision day, the Wright vs. Kleiman case continued even before Christmas. On December 23, Wrights attorneys filed two documents one was a response in support of an appeal against a previous court order, while the other was a response to a request from the Kleiman estate regarding the hearing of his wife, Ramona Watts.

The first document is about Wrights refusal to release a list of his Bitcoin addresses since August. Wrights lawyers argue that he should not be punished for not being able to give out the list. In particular, Wright has made efforts to restore the list by ordering the CTO of nChain to produce it.

The second document is about Wrights wife, Ramona Watts, who is to testify as a witness. Kleimans lawyers filed a motion on December 21 requesting that she be allowed to travel and legal counsel so that she could testify in the U.S. court. Watts, however, demanded costs between $65,000 and $164,000, which the Kleiman side rejected. Wrights lawyers argued in the new letter that the Kleimans would have to pay the costs, as the hearing is requested solely by the plaintiffs.

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Last Updated on 26 December, 2019

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Will Craig Wright receive the keys to 1 million Bitcoin on January 1? - Crypto News Flash

2019 was marked by numerous events in the crypto industry, some of which could be considered quite significant and major fails.

With 2019 being only 6 days away from its conclusion, it might be interesting to take a look back on this year, and see which events related to the crypto industry may stand out.

Without further ado, here are our top 5 picks for some of the crazy crypto-related fails in 2019.

Earlier this year, there was a charity that featured lunch with the legendary investor of Wall Street, Warren Buffet, as one of the rewards for donations. The lunch with a famous businessman was won by the TRON CEO, Justin Sun, with a bid of $4.5 million.

Suns goal was to talk to Buffet about crypto and try to convince him that cryptos are good for the future. Unfortunately, the lunch had to be delayed, and eventually it was canceled, causing widespread disappointment throughout the crypto industry.

Craig Wright has been trying to claim the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto Bitcoins mysterious creator for a number of years now. However, Wright was never able to move a single coin that belongs to Satoshi, which is the only way he could prove to the world that he is, indeed, who he claims to be.

In one of the more recent attempts to do so, he claimed that he had a mountain of evidence, including historical documents, such as the handwritten version of Bitcoins white paper, which included coffee stains and rusty staples. Not exactly proof, but it was certainly an entertaining statement at the time.

Earlier this year, TRON, and its CEO, Justin Sun, came under a pretty negative spotlight after a PR disaster revolving around a Tesla giveaway. As some may remember, Sun announced that TRON is partnering up with Tether, which was supposed to be followed by a giveaway of Tesla Model S.

Many were skeptical right away, but a lot of people were also quite hopeful. The Twitter announcement exploded, and when the time came to draw the winner, Sun used a random lottery selection software, TWrench. But, when he posted the video, it quickly got removed due to a glitch and large file size. When the community managed to dig it up, they realized that it was fake and that the winners name appeared before the drawing even began.

A crypto project known as DigiByte made a lot of effort in order to get listed on some of the biggest exchanges out there, and Poloniex was quite high on the list. The project eventually got listed, but it was also quickly removed from the exchange quite recently.

Why? Simple. The projects founder took to Twitter to blow off some steem and criticize quite a few big names in the crypto industry, including Binance CEO, CZ, TRON CEO, Justin Sun, and even Poloniex itself. DigiByte was removed from the exchange soon after, and many believe that this was the reason why.

Another major fail from a few months ago came about as Binance delisted 30 trading pairs from its platform, including TRON-based BitTorrent (BTT). Interestingly enough, this was the first token that Binance Launchpad ever launched, and it even started the Initial Exchange Offering (IEO) trend that marked the year.

Binance even publicly supported TRX and BTT earlier this year, only to delist its trading pairs (among others) later on, which caused a major price drop for BTT and its peers. It was undoubtedly a hard blow for BTT and Justin Sun alike.

Do you agree with our picks? What other crazy, major fails do you remember from earlier in 2019? Let us know down in the comments.

Image via Shutterstock, Twitter @jaredctate @poloniex @justinsuntron

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Top 5 Crazy Crypto Events of 2019 - Bitcoinist

Bitcoin may be trading at prices that seem low in comparison to the crypto assets all-time high price or $20,000, or even its recent local high of nearly $14,000 but in reality, its the best performing investment of the last decade.

Lets see how the number one cryptocurrency by market cap, and even the number two crypto, stack up against other top investments of the last ten years.

Bitcoin was the first-ever cryptocurrency, designed by the mysterious cypherpunk Satoshi Nakamoto. At its inception, it was merely a concept for what would ultimately become the worlds first peer to peer digital cash system, worth just a fraction of pennies at its creation.

Related Reading | Spot Versus Tether Exchanges: Can Bitcoin Price Itself Be a Buy or Sell Signal

It was mined by computers by early supporters of the emerging technology and then traded for cash on exchanges. One early Bitcoin user who made the first public transaction for physical goods traded 10,000 BTC for two pizzas.

Today, the asset is trading at roughly $7200, down nearly 50% from the years high and nearly two-thirds down from the all-time high price it set at the peak of crypto fanaticism in 2017.

But despite ongoing price decline and downtrend, the first-ever cryptocurrency still beats out all other top performing investments of the last decade.

A $100 investment in Bitcoin with an ROI of 62,500% would have resulted in a gain of $62,500. A $1,000 investment, over $625,000, and a $10,000 investment would have netted the investor over $6.25 million.

A similar $100 investment in top stocks such as Amazon or Apple would have only amounted to $1,250 or $840 in gains.

According to the list below, a single $100 investment in Bitcoin would have outperformed a $100 investment in each of the rest of the list combined.

Even a $100,000 investment in a cultural phenomenon like Netflix wouldnt have brought as much return on the initial investment as $10,000 invested into Bitcoin.

While Ethereum has recently had a bit of a negative stigma surrounding it, even being dubbed a double-digit shitcoin, it has still outperformed all other assets on the list aside from Bitcoin itself.

Ethereum was sold as an ICO at just pennies on the dollar, and at its all-time high reached $1,400. The cryptocurrency is trading at just 90% of that high at roughly $125 currently but has still brought investors gains of over 17,900%.

Related Reading | These Five Altcoins Crushed Bitcoins 2019 Returns

This means that just a $100 invested in Ethereum would have resulted in a $17,900 return. And while this is under just one-third of what the earliest Bitcoin investors were able to churn out of the asset, investors in the number two crypto by market cap also struck it rich compared to most of the worlds biggest stocks.

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Heres What $100 in Bitcoin Would Have Made Next To The Decades Best Investments - newsBTC

captionBitcoin is making a breakthrough within developing countries.sourceChris Weller/Business Insider

The mysterious nature of bitcoin has led to common misperceptions about its use, with many in the mainstream relegating it to the realm of hackers and gamers.

The history of cryptocurrency shows quite a different purpose: Bitcoin was actually created with the intention of bridging the global wealth gap. The domain name bitcoin.org was registered online in the midst of the Great Recession of 2008. Soon after, the mysterious and purported creator of bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, released statements explaining the electronic cash-to-cash system was developed as a means to fight centralized currency manipulation.

Nevertheless, wealth inequality has become so drastic that many in the lower and middle classes cant afford to own bitcoin dollars. Inequality in the US has reached a record high since the US Census started tracking it five decades ago, with the federal data showing evidence of a shrinking middle class.

Though the global economy continues to face substantial pressures, experts say the growing popularity of bitcoin might help return it to its intended use: fighting income inequality.

Whats unique about bitcoin is that it functions on another network, one thats a lot more transparent than a corporate bank. Every bitcoin transaction is always recorded in its public archive the blockchain.

Blockchain is the record of all exchanging cryptocurrencies, essentially digital money, between two parties. It is an independent, shared encrypted database of money entries think of it as a shared Google Doc. Bitcoin is one type of cryptocurrency among others like litecoin, ethereum, and ripple.

Mark Yusko, the CEO and CIO of investment advisory company Morgan Creek Capital Management, told Business Insider that he believes the blockchain network and its fundamental growth can be leveraged to alleviate income inequality. Yusko is known to be a longtime cryptocurrency bull, drawing investors toward more exposure with bitcoin.

The government and the elites want to have all the wealth, so they manufacture inflation and the wealth flows to the top, he said. And thats why we have the greatest wealth inequality in the history of mankind. Bitcoin helps solve that because now we can opt out as an owner of assets from that fiat system.

The hedge-fund chief explained one of the main economic problems Americans face today is not owning any or enough assets like real estate property and stocks. Not having money to invest in markets and living from paycheck to paycheck is a major setback for the poor and middle class.

There are more opportunities to acquire assets through blockchain technology. For instance, bitcoin is now accepted in some real estate markets, where investors can own parts of a building if they cant afford the whole unit, reports CNBC. This new business model can help distribute wealth and widen the investor demographic. It can also open possibilities of owning property across international borders.

While encouraging people to own assets is a way to fight income inequality in the US, developing countries need a different game plan.

As more people around the world own smartphones, bitcoin has the potential to reach even more users in the 2020s. Because cryptocurrency is only transferred electronically, having the most basic internet connection immediately helps anyone access and trade the currency.

Attention toward expanding the crypto space in developing countries first emerged in 2017, when fintech expert Anton Dzyatkovsky cofounded MicroMoney, a money-lending app targeting Southeast Asian countries like Myanmar, Thailand, and the Philippines that provides services to help people build a credit history on the blockchain. There are 1.7 billion people around the world who dont have bank accounts and cant access loads, according to The World Bank. Bitcoin has the potential to reach this demographic and provide those financial services.

We are proud of the fact that we can help people who have no access to the classical, but outdated centralized economy of the bank, Dzyatkovsky told Business Insider.

Cryptocurrency is also making a breakthrough in Latin America, Business Insider reports. In 2018, the Venezuelan government devalued its currency by 95% due to hyperinflation, prompting more than 400,000 Venezuelans to flee from the economic collapse. After the government issued a new cryptocurrency called petro, the fleeing citizens were able to make cross-border transactions without relying on paper money. The petro is still used in 2019.

In another case in 2017, an anonymous bitcoin millionaire going by the alias Pine committed $5 million worth of bitcoin donations to GiveDirectly, an organization thats running the worlds largest basic income experiment in Kenyan villages. The bitcoin dollars went toward giving people access to clean water and sending money directly to people living in poverty who are facing food shortage, school fees, and home repairs.

If this money were to be given to everybody, this would be a very good thing, Edwin Odongo Anyango, a 30-year-old day laborer at one of the Kenyan villages, told Business Insider. What this money does is it creates hope. And when people have hope, they are happy.

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Here are all the ways bitcoin could help address income inequality in the 2020s - Business Insider

Bitcoin fans can rest easy as Twitter has backpedalled on its plans to purge inactive accounts until it can figure out how to memorialize them.

The furor was sparked yesterday, after Twitter announced its plans to purge unused accounts starting in December.

In response, Bitcoin BTC rewards application Lolli asked Twitter to memorialize Hal Finneys account and tweets.

Finney, who sadly passed away in August 2014, was a well-known computer scientist and an early Bitcoin adopter.

He received the first Bitcoin transaction from the cryptocurrencys mysterious creator Satoshi Nakamoto, sparking speculation that he may have indeed invented the coin, something he fervently denied.

Finneys Twitter profile currently boasts 15,000 followers, even though his last tweet was sent on September 15, 2010, several years before he passed away in Phoenix, Arizona due to complicationsderiving from ALS.

A former developer for the PGP Corporation and acypherpunk, Finney joined Twitter in October 2007. Then, on January 11, 2009, Finney tweeted saying he was running Bitcoin.

To date, the tweet has been retweeted over 6,000 times and liked by more than 15,000 users.

Finney will forever be part of Bitcoins history and I for one Im not surprised by the communitys desire to preserve his memory.

Published November 28, 2019 13:16 UTC

Originally posted here:

Legendary Bitcoin contributor Hal Finneys Twitter profile is safe for now - The Next Web

A recent analysis from CoinMetrics hints that over 1,500,000 Bitcoins could permanently be out of the total circulation. While BTCs active supply should currently be over 18 million, the quantity fell short.

Notably, on October 19 this year, 18 million BTC officially entered circulation, which happened at block 600,000. At this time, the community began cheering up as it highlighted the end of the inflation process for Bitcoin. However, things arent as they appear. The supply reportedly fell short which brought on a sense of fear, where are these lost coins going?

In essence, the creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, capped the asset to a supply of 21 million coins, which highlights the scarcity of the giant digital asset. Bitcoin halves every four years on average, and with the latest finding, the network must have put BTCs circulating supply at approx 18 million Bitcoins. But the actual supply seems much lower than the reported figure, i.e 16 million BTC. Consequently, the difference between these figures drove the concept of lost coins.

Being a digital currency data and research site, CoinMetrics divided lost Bitcoin into two different segments provably lost and probably lost. The subject of lost coins often comes with the debate that Bitcoins most significant value proposition is scarcity. Interestingly, however, when Satoshi created the Bitcoin protocol, they clarified that lost coins could also be stolen, burned or even forgotten. Nevertheless, he had also mentioned that the lost coins make everyone elses coins worth slightly more.

According to CoinMetrics study, provably lost coins are those 50 BTC coins that are locked in the first block. The research firm adds:

The result is that those 50 BTC are not present in Bitcoins ledger, even if they are visible in a transaction included in the main chain.

As the firm dives into the calculation, it stresses that;

In total, we can compute Bitcoins actual supply at block 600,000 working backward from the expected 18M BTC value and subtracting what is provably lost, the study details. This figure of 17,999,817 BTC as of block 600,000 is the technically correct view of Bitcoins supply.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Twitter.

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No, Bitcoins Circulating Supply is Not 18 Million - BeInCrypto

From the 1950s until right before the Great Recession of 2008, the growth in household wealth for the bottom 50%, middle 40%, and the top 10% of society was steadily growing. This meant that there was a sizeable and financially healthy middle class, and even in the lower class, it was relatively easy to move up in society and earn a solid living.

Source

However, that all changed when the Great Recession of 2008 hit. Financial markets tumbled, and the middle and lower classes saw their investment portfolios evaporate.

The upper class was essentially saved from any great loss by an extreme financial bailout, with the Federal Reserve injecting $3.8 trillion into banks and corporations between 2008 and 2015. This money was produced via debt monetization, essentially the same as printing money out of thin air.

The idea was that the major banks and corporations going bankrupt during the Great Recession were too big to fail and they had to be saved to protect America. Also, then-Federal Reserve ChairmanBen Bernanke, who initiated this policy, thought the wealth would trickle down, with higher stock market prices boosting consumer wealth.

The trickle-down theory was highly flawed, however, since the top 20% of society held practically all of the assets as of 2010, with the bottom 80% holding a large majority of the debt. So the federal injection of money that was printed out of thin air stabilized the wealth of the upper class while the wealth of the lower class tumbled.

The regime change from persistent growth in all classes of society to a sudden increase in wealth inequality can be seen in the above chart, and the pivot point was indeed the 2008 Great Recession.

This wealth inequality is currently surging, with the top 1% of society holding as much wealth as the middle and upper classes combined. Data also shows that, since 2008, the percentage of wealth held by the top 10% has increased from 60% to 64% while the percentage of wealth held by the bottom 90% has decreased from 40% to 36%. This data makes it clear that the Federal Reserves policy of printing money and injecting it into banks and corporations has essentially transferred wealth from the poor to the rich.

Perhaps the fundamental cause of this transfer of wealth is that the Federal Reserves liquidity injections provide ample opportunities for banks, corporations, and stockholders to make money, while the rest of society does not have such opportunities. This is especially true since as of 2016 the top 10% of society owns 93% of all stocks and mutual funds. Thus, the richest fraction of society gets wealthier and the rest of society sees practically no wealth increase whenever these liquidity injections happen, and the wealth inequality gap grows.

The Federal Reserve has been once again printing money, to the tune of $280 billion since the beginning of September, so the problem being discussed in this article is happening right now. $280 billion is almost enough to give $1,000 to every man, woman, and child in the United States, which probably would have caused a massive uptick in consumer spending, but instead it was used just to pump up stock prices which causes practically no growth in the real economy.

It is important to note that this issue is not confined to the United States. There are over 20 countries where serious protests have occurred in 2019, mostly driven by a large amount of people not having basic food and necessities.

The most shocking fact is that the top 0.1% of society owns as much wealth as the bottom 90%, and that was in 2013, so by now the top 0.1% of society has more wealth than the bottom 90%. The only time this has happened before was in the years leading up to the Great Depression of the 1930s. Also, apparently the economic situation was similar right before the French Revolution.

Notably, even during the worst of the Great Depression the top 0.1% continued to hold more assets than the bottom 90%, which intuitively makes sense since most people could not afford food or a place to live. In other words, a small fraction of all the people had wealth during the Great Depression while most people suffered extreme poverty. This is perhaps a glimpse of what is to come.

Bitcoin (BTC) Has The Potential to Solve the Wealth Inequality Issue

In the Bitcoin (BTC) genesis block, Satoshi Nakamoto included the statement 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks. This alluded to one of Satoshis primary reasons for creating Bitcoin (BTC), which was to fight against centralized currency manipulation by providing a decentralized currency for the world. Indeed, Satoshi launched Bitcoin (BTC) in the midst of the Great Recession of 2008.

Additionally, a month after launching Bitcoin (BTC) Satoshi explicitly said The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust thats required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust.

Satoshis words could not have been more accurate since, in the years after, the Federal Reserve printed trillions of dollars. In this specific quote, Satoshi is referencing how money printing causes centralized fiat currency to lose value, but the other serious issue with money printing is that it leads to drastic wealth inequality.

The problem is that fiat currency and Central Banks almost completely control the global economy for now, especially the USD and the Federal Reserve, so even though Bitcoin (BTC) exists, it cannot solve this issue completely.

People can choose to own Bitcoin (BTC) and protect themselves against inflation and even make money long term, so that is one way Bitcoin (BTC) helps as of now. However, wealth inequality is so drastic that the lower and middle classes can barely afford to own Bitcoin (BTC), so for a large fraction of the population this is not even an option.

If the great economic crash finally does come, perhaps at that point countries will have a chance to switch over to Bitcoin (BTC) as a primary currency. Already, the crash has come for some countries like Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Iran, and Lebanon, but unfortunately the trend so far is toward governments trying to suppress cryptocurrency activity even when local fiat currencies collapse.

Therefore, the scenario that Bitcoin (BTC) becomes the primary global currency is highly speculative and uncertain. Governments will not easily let go of controlling fiat currency and Central Banks even if the system completely fails since that is where most of their power is derived from. That being said, if Bitcoin (BTC) did become the primary global currency, Central Banks and governments will no longer be able to manipulate currency, possibly resolving the wealth inequality issue of the modern era and preventing it from reemerging.

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Wealth Inequality Has Reached Levels Only Seen Right Before the Great Depression and the French Revolution Due to Central Bank Currency Manipulation;...